In June 2014 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the sets at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast as part of a three day visit to Northern Ireland. They met members of the cast and crew and were presented with a miniature version of the Iron Throne. Elizabeth was offered the chance to sit on the Iron Throne but declined, as the monarch of England is not allowed to sit on a foreign throne, even fictional ones.

Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, says that fans often ask her to recite the list of names Arya always recites before sleeping - the names of the persons in the series who have injured Arya or her family and who Arya intends to kill - and to insert the fan's name into the list.

In Westeros, bastards (also 'natural child' or 'baseborn') born to nobles are given surnames different than their father's, according to the region they were born in. These surnames are mostly associated with the geographic or climatic features of the respective regions: The Reach - Flowers; The Westerlands - Hill The Iron Islands - Pyke The Riverlands - Rivers Dorne - Sand The North - Snow The Vale - Stone The Stormlands - Storm The Crownlands - Waters. These special surnames or "bastard names" apply only to noble-born bastards, who are openly acknowledged by their noble parent. Therefore, bastards both of whose parents are commoners, or noble-born bastards that are unacknowledged by their noble parent (like Gendry) cannot use the special surname. A noble-born bastard can be legitimized by royal decree, thus is considered as trueborn child and changes the surname to the father's. However, the social stigma of the bastard may not always be lifted even after legitimization.

Author George R.R. Martin was asked if he had a resolution or ending to the seemingly endless conflict. He jokingly replied that the next book would just be a description of a cloud of dust or snow being driven by the wind across a vast graveyard full of tombstones.

The official words of House Lannister "Hear Me Roar!" are seldom mentioned. Their unofficial motto "A Lannister always pays his debts" is often used, mostly in negative context, meaning that Lannisters always repay unkindness with unkindness.

Natural brunette, Emilia Clarke has stated that she has never dyed her hair for the show. Daenerys Targaryen's impressive blond locks are achieved via an elaborate wig and makeup system that takes considerable time to get into place.

George R.R. Martin was inspired to write the novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" after years of writing for restrictive television budgets, and deliberately wrote the series to be nearly unfilmable. After the success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Martin was approached to license the novels into a series of films, one project was proposed using only Daenerys' story line, and another project proposed only including the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters.

The role of Tommen Baratheon, portrayed by Callum Wharry, was completely absent from the third season of the series and was later recast for season 4; being then played by Dean-Charles Chapman, who had already previously appeared in the show playing Martyn Lannister in season 3.

The first season used Northern Inuit dogs, a type specifically bred for wolf-like appearance, to stand in for the direwolves (the Stark's house sigil). However, since direwolves are known to be much larger than normal wolves, real wolves were digitally composited into scenes for season 2. This strained the budget and the schedule, hence why there are only a handful of scenes with Grey Wind (Robb Stark's wolf), Summer (Bran Stark's wolf) and Shaggydog (Rickon Stark's wolf); Ghost, who belongs to Jon Snow, is shown in brief glimpses.

While the first two seasons roughly cover the novels "A Game of Thrones" and "A Clash of Kings" respectively, the third season covers about two-thirds of the third novel "A Storm of Swords." The fourth season covers the rest of "A Storm of Swords" and chapters from the fourth and fifth novels "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons", and part of the sample chapters of "The Winds of Winter."

In the unaired pilot, George R.R. Martin cameoed as a Pentoshi nobleman at the wedding of Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen. The scene, alongside most of the pilot, was subsequently reshot and Martin did not appear.

Many of the characters have nicknames, mostly based on specific deed, behavior or physical feature of the person in question. The nicknames can be derogatory (Kingslayer) or for mockery (Brienne the Beauty). For example:

The original pilot that was filmed left everyone so unsatisfied that HBO agreed to reshoot most of it, bringing Timothy Van Patten to do also the second episode and letting the creators rewrite whatever they felt they needed to.

Yara Greyjoy, introduced in the second book and season, is named Asha in the books. The name was changed for the television series to avoid confusion with Osha. However, in the German dubbed version she is called Asha, like in the books. Similarly, Lysa Arryn's son Robert is named Robin in the series to avoid confusion with Robert Baratheon.

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson was the third actor to take on the role of Gregor Clegane (aka "The Mountain"), a role previously played by Conan Stevens in the first season, and Ian Whyte in the second season. Whyte had a brief appearence in the third season premiere, though as a different character.

Daenerys' dragons are named Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Each one is named after someone she has lost in her life: Drogon, the largest dragon with black/red scales, is named after her husband Khal Drogo; Rhaegal, who has green/bronze scales, is named after Daenerys' brother Rhaegar Targaryen, who was killed by Robert Baratheon during Robert's Rebellion; Viserion, the cream/gold scaled dragon, is named after Daenerys' abusive brother Viserys. She claimed that she named her dragon this because "Viserys was cruel and weak and frightened, yet he was my brother still. My dragon will do what he could not."

George R.R. Martin has stated that several of the show's characters are improvements over his own versions in the books with both writing and performance, specifically mentioning Natalia Tena as Osha and Sibel Kekilli as Shae.

The series takes its name from the first novel in the book series - "A Game of Thrones" - which is actually known as "A Song of Ice and Fire." George R.R. Martin's story credit acknowledges the entire series under this title, rather than the title of individual volumes.

Daenerys' dragon Drogon, the largest of the three with black and red scales, is considered in the novels to be the reincarnation of Balerion the Black Dread. Balerion was the largest of Aegon the Conquerer's dragons, and was also responsible for the creation of the Iron Throne.

In sharp contrast to his turn as sadistic Joffrey, everyone on the show describes actor Jack Gleeson as a warm and friendly person. He is also good friends with Sophie Turner, who he often has to antagonize on-screen.

Women in Westeros typically take their husband's surname upon marriage, with the exception of the house holding the Iron Throne where the surname is only inherited by birth and not marriage. This is why consorts to kings and heirs of the Iron Throne retain their own name, e.g. Cersei Lannister instead of Cersei Baratheon, Elia Martell instead of Elia Targaryen.

After a brief but memorable appearence as Daario Naharis in a couple episodes of the third season, Ed Skrein quit the show to star in the reboot of The Transporter Refueled (2015) films. Actor Michiel Huisman was chosen to take over the role for the fourth season of the series.

Tamzin Merchant played Daenerys Targaryen in the pilot but was replaced by Emilia Clarke for the series. While the reason for Merchant's departure has not been made public, George R.R. Martin praised her performance as "wonderful" in his blog.

While most of the show is largely faithful to the books, composite characters do appear. The most prominent is the prostitute Ros, who is a composite of several named (Alayaya, Chataya, Kyra) and unnamed characters from the book series. Another composite character is the Spice King, who appears in Season Two.

Characters from noble houses often have images of their house's sigil incorporated into their costumes. For example, Cersei almost always appears wearing jewelry with images of lions. Sometimes the inclusion is almost indiscernible to the television viewer, such as the blue dress Daenerys' wore through season three which was embroidered with a texture resembling dragon scales.

In the series, Charles Dance's character, Tywin Lannister, was previously married to a woman named Joanna before her death, and had three children by her. In real life, Dance was previously married to a woman who was also named Joanna before their divorce, and Dance also has three children.

In the show, King Renly Baratheon has his own Kingsguard. He refers to it as such when he inducts Brienne of Tarth into the order. However, in the novels, Renly's protectors are known as the Rainbow Guard.

The showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said the production of the show is a massive undertaking. The production lasts the entire year and they shoot the show like a 10-hour movie. Season 5 alone was shot in 5 countries, on 151 sets, for 240 days, having 166 cast members, over 1,000 crew members and over 5,000 extras.

Although the Wall is the largest structure in the Game of Thrones world, it is not the tallest. In the books, the tallest structure is the High Tower in Oldtown and the second tallest the Great Pyramid of Meereen.

According to the novels, the sigil of House Baratheon is a black stag with a crown above its head on a field of gold. In the TV series, the Baratheons' banner depicts a stag with a crown around its neck.

Features actors from two different adaptations of The Lord of the Rings: Peter Vaughan, who played Denethor in the BBC Radio adaptation; and Sean Bean, who played the character's son Boromir in the Peter Jackson films.

During the series you can see characters wearing belts with a particular knot twisted after the buckle, this is clearly visible in most knights. The knot is actually correct and used in medieval times, often referred as a garter and used to fix leg armor pieces to the knights' legs below the knees. It is one of the symbols of the English "Order of the Garter" , the highest Chivalry Order founded in 1348 by the English King Henry III in the early stages of the Hundred Years War with France. The Arms of the Order of the Garter is a blue belt, or garter, with this same characteristic knot seen in the TV series. An example can also be seen in the tomb of one of the Order founders, Sir Reginald of Cobham, at Lingnfield Church in Surrey, his effigy has the garter below his left knee.

In the novelization, the title of the king of Westeros is "King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men. Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm." In the show, "the Rhoynar" is omitted from the title. The Rhoynar are a reference to the Dornish, who immigrated to Westeros from the River Rhoyne. Since the writers believed this would cause confusion (since the Dornish didn't appear until later seasons) so it was left out.

The series has used many locations to bring Westeros and Essos to life. Most of the Northern scenes are filmed in Northern Ireland. The country is the production's home base and most interior scenes are filmed in a studio in Belfast. Scenes in King's Landing are filmed in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik. Scenes in Essos were also shot in Croatia. Many of the scenes in Essos and King's Landing were filmed in Malta in the first season, but for unknown reasons the production never returned to Malta from Season 2 on. Morocco was used as a location for Daenerys' sequences in Astapor and Yunkai in Season 3, but the country was dropped as a location after the third season. Scenes beyond the Wall were filmed in various locations in Iceland. The fifth season added Spain as a filming location for Dorne. It has been revealed that the production will return to Spain for Season 6, but it is unclear if it will be for Dorne or another location (the locations scouted are different to those used in Season 5).

In March 2014, HBO released a 10 tracks mixtape called "Catch the Throne" as promotion for the fourth season of the show. The mixtape includes Rap songs from artists like Common, Big Boi, Wale, Kilo Kish and more, and each song has relations to things in the show in it's lyrics. Most of the songs also sampled music from the original Ramin Djawadi soundtracks of the first three seasons of the show.

Some of the inspiration for the War of the Five Kings in the series comes from the War of the Roses, a series of dynastic wars in the 15th century where rivaling houses fought for the throne of England.

Sam Heughan auditioned to play various characters including Renly Baratheon, Loras Tyrell and a few different members of the Night's Watch. Heughan went on to star in Outlander (2014) alongside Game of Thrones' alumnus Tobias Menzies.

The dominant religion in Westeros is the Faith of the seven. This is a monotheistic religion, with each of the seven representing aspects of the same one god, though they are often incorrectly referred to as multiple gods. They are the Father, the Mother, the Maiden, the Crone, the Warrior, the Smith and the Stranger. The religion is based on Catholicism, which likewise involves different aspects of the same God, the father, the son, the holy spirit, prayer to the virgin Mary.

The poster for the third season, featuring the silhouette of a dragon flying across the title on a silver surface, is similar to the theatrical poster for Jurassic Park III (2001), released twelve years earlier.

Many actors have also appeared in Doctor Who: Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen) in the same episode as Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Jojen Reed) David Bradley (Walder Frey) Liam Cunningham (Davos) in the same episode as Tobias Menzies (Edmure Tully) Iain Glen (Jorah) Faye Marsay (Waif) And Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) is set to be in an upcoming episode of season 9

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stated when the show began they set a rule of "no prophecies, dreams, or flashbacks". All three rules were eventually broken, with the inclusion of Bran's dreams of the three-eyed raven, a prophecy from Quaithe for Daenerys, and a flashback scene to Cersei's childhood.

In 2014, Emilia Clarke was cast as Sarah Connor in 2015's "Terminator: Genysis." However, Lena Headey had played Sarah Connor in the TV show "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Summer Glau who played Cameron Phillips in the series had worked with Jewel Staite in the TV series "Firefly" and the feature film "Serenity." Jewel Staite herself had worked with Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo in "Game of Thrones" in the TV series "Stargate: Atantis." In 2011, Jason Momoa succeeded Arnold Schwarzenegger who played The Terminator, as Conan in the 2011 reboot of the 1982 film "Conan the Barbarian." Richard Madden is the boyfriend of actress Jenna Coleman, who worked with Matt Smith in "Doctor Who." Matt Smith would later star opposite Emilia Clarke in "Terminator: Genysis" and would work with Lena Headey and Charles Dance in "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

Two actresses that dropped out of the show have appeared in an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice." Jennifer Ehle, who was set to play Catelyn Stark, played Elizabeth Bennet in BBC's Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Tamzin Merchant played Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (2005).

Three locations are shown in every intro sequence of every episode: King's Landing, Winterfell, and the Wall. King's Landing is always shown first, with the crowned stag of House Baratheon. Winterfell is shown first in the hands of House Stark, then sacked and torched, before going to House Bolton. The Wall is the last main shot before the camera pans to Essos.

Spoilers

The trivia items below may give away important plot points.

George R.R. Martin has stated that the infamous "Red Wedding" was the hardest chapter for him to write in "A Storm of Swords." He was so emotionally attached to the characters that he actually wrote the rest of the book first, and then that chapter last. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, upon reading it, declared it was one of the major reasons they decided to option the books for a television series. Their dramatization differs from the book in a few details. Most notably, Robb's wife is not present at the wedding, nor is she killed. Whether she is pregnant is unknown.

Series author George R.R. Martin reported on his blog that after the filming of the episode in which Sansa's direwolf Lady is executed, the dog that played Lady, a Northern Inuit named Zunni, was adopted by Sophie Turner, the actress who plays Sansa.

In every season at least one king (or claimant) dies. In season one they are Robert Baratheon (King on the Iron Throne), Viserys Targaryen (claimant to the Iron Throne), and Khal Drogo (a Khal is a chieftain similar in position to a king), in season two Renly Baratheon (claimant to the Iron Throne) and Xaro Xhoan Daxos (King of Qarth), in season three Robb Stark (King in the North), in season four Joffrey Baratheon (King on the Iron Throne), and in season five Mance Rayder (King Beyond the Wall) and Stannis Baratheon (claimant to the Iron Throne).

George R.R. Martin has said that some fans have correctly guessed the ending of the series. One of the most popular fan theories is that Jon Snow is in fact a Targaryen, with his true father being Rhaegar Targaryen and true mother being Ned Stark's sister Lyanna. It is debatable if this could make him an heir to the Iron Throne, as his presumed father was married to another woman (Elia Martell) and he would still be a bastard, however because the Targaryens were known to practice bigamy, if Lyanna and Rhaegar had been married than he would be a legitimate heir.

In the fifth season Myrcella said she has been in Dorne for four years since Tyrion sent her away in the second season. This means Gilly's child Sam, who was born in the third season, should not still be a baby but a three-year-old child.

In the novel, Robb Stark's wife is named Jeyne Westerling. House Westerling are staunch supporters of House Lannister, and take part in the sinister scheme to bring the Starks down. In the show, she is called Talisa Maegyr and her backstory is changed. In addition to this, she dies while carrying Robb's child along with Robb and Catelyn at the Red Wedding. In the novel, Jeyne does not attend the wedding, she is not pregnant and later discovers the fate of her husband while residing in Riverrun.

In the show, Ramsay Bolton is arranged to be married to Sansa Stark to solidify the Boltons' hold on the north. In the novels, he is arranged to marry Sansa's best friend Jeyne Pool. Jeyne is married to Ramsay under the guise of being "Arya Stark." However, Jeyne does not have a major role in the show, so Sansa Stark became the most suitable marriage choice for Ramsay.

Maester Aemon is the first prominent character on the show to die of natural causes. Hoster Tully (Catelyn's father and Lord of Riverrun) also died of natural causes, but only appears on-screen after his death at his funeral. Old Nan also died of natural causes according to the show-runners after the death of Margaret John who portrayed her, but the death was never seen or mentioned on-screen.

Grand Maester Pycelle's elderly and feeble demeanor is an act, briefly alluded to in a scene from season one's finale "Fire and Blood" showing Pycelle doing a series of exercises and stretches. A deleted scene between Pycelle and Tywin Lannister shot for the third season and included on the DVD/Blu-ray set shows Pycelle's normal posture and speaking cadence, explaining that he maintains the facade to appear harmless.

Sean Bean, the actor who portrays Eddard Stark, also plays Boromir in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. Lord of the Ring was one of George R.R. Martin's biggest influences while writing the series. Coincidentally, both of Sean Bean's characters don't make it past the first installment in both Game of Thrones(dies at the end of season 1) and Lord of the Rings(dies at the end of the first movie.)